Draw Bar Receiver Hitch

[jwguthrie]

I'm a new member to TractorbyNet. I have a Kubota M9000 tractor with a cab. I'm trying to locate a receiver hitch adapter for the draw bar so I can use Reese hitches to vary the height for towing different equipment. Specifically I would like to be able to level my 500 gallon sprayer trailer. Currently the draw bar hitch is about 4 inches low which results in the rear of the trailer and spray boom being higher than it's supposed to be. I know I could use a 3-point hitch which would allow adjusting the height but I am concerned about towing the weight of a 500 gallon spray tank and the difficulty of keeping a constant height with the 3 - point hitch. I believe I could fabricate an adapter to accept Reese hitches but I can't believe I'm the only person that needs such a thing. I would appreciate any suggestions.

 

[ishiboo]

I'm a new member to TractorbyNet. I have a Kubota M9000 tractor with a cab. I'm trying to locate a receiver hitch adapter for the draw bar so I can use Reese hitches to vary the height for towing different equipment. Specifically I would like to be able to level my 500 gallon sprayer trailer. Currently the draw bar hitch is about 4 inches low which results in the rear of the trailer and spray boom being higher than it's supposed to be. I know I could use a 3-point hitch which would allow adjusting the height but I am concerned about towing the weight of a 500 gallon spray tank and the difficulty of keeping a constant height with the 3 - point hitch. I believe I could fabricate an adapter to accept Reese hitches but I can't believe I'm the only person that needs such a thing. I would appreciate any suggestions.

The 3-point hitch is designed for position control... my 3-point trailer mover hitch is my favorite attachment.

I'm not sure what you mean by "Reese hitch"... they are a brand of trailer parts. Do you mean a common square receiver hitch? IE, 2" or 2.5" square? If so, you would just need to buy the receiver tube and whatever you need to attach it to a draw bar. I'm sure some fabrication will be required.

 

[ishiboo]

Receiver Tubing

 

[jwguthrie]

Thanks for the reply. I understand the 3-point hitch is designed for position control and I have a 3-point hitch that will tow either gooseneck or ball hitch trailers. It's fine for moving trailers around but I would not want to use it for pulling a heavy load (500 gallons of water) over long distances, up and down hills over rough fields. The draw bar is intended for pulling heavy loads and that is the reason I would like to adapt a receiver hitch to it. In my area Reese is a common brand of square receiver hitch parts including a variety of ball mounts and receiver tubing. I realize I could buy some square tubing and fabricate one but I was hoping I could find an adapter I could purchase and avoid having to fab one.

 

[jwguthrie]

Thanks for the info. If I can't find an adapter I will need some tubing like this to fab one.

 

[ishiboo]

Thanks for the reply. I understand the 3-point hitch is designed for position control and I have a 3-point hitch that will tow either gooseneck or ball hitch trailers. It's fine for moving trailers around but I would not want to use it for pulling a heavy load (500 gallons of water) over long distances, up and down hills over rough fields. The draw bar is intended for pulling heavy loads and that is the reason I would like to adapt a receiver hitch to it. In my area Reese is a common brand of square receiver hitch parts including a variety of ball mounts and receiver tubing. I realize I could buy some square tubing and fabricate one but I was hoping I could find an adapter I could purchase and avoid having to fab one.

I guess I'm different, pulling 4000 lbs of water plus a trailer seems like nothing for a 9000 3-point hitch... I'd pull it with mine. The 3-point hitch is also designed for pulling heavy loads like plows, discs, etc.

I highly doubt you will find a pre-made solution for a receiver tube on the drawbar, since every manufacturer/models drawbar is different, and most people (99.9999%) use the 3-point hitch for that. So you'll probably need to fab one.

 

[jwguthrie]

I suppose I will need to fab one. I'm sure my tractor would pull the load but that's not the problem with using a 3-point hitch. My objective is to keep the tongue of the sprayer from moving up or down which results in the boom height from the ground changing which affects the spray coverage or increases spray drift. As you know a 3-point hitch has no down force. As long as the tongue weight remains constant there is no problem but with water sloshing around and when going up a hill you can in fact have a negative tongue weight which will result in the lift arms raising which then compounds the problem. There is also a safety problem as tractors have been known to tip over backwards when pulling a heavy load with the the 3-point hitch usually resulting in the death of the operator. The 3-point lift is designed to pull implements on the ground then lift them when required. The 3-point hitches for pulling trailers are convenient and work fine as long as the load remains constant and the tongue weight is positive.

 

[Gunny]

I don't know how the tow bar (I call it a belly bar) attaches on your tractor, but on mine, the belly bar runs through a bracket under the PTO shaft and pins to another bracket under the tractor.

I had the same problems you're having, so I bought a short piece of stock with the same width and depth dimensions as the stock bar and welded one of those receiver tubes to it. I sized the length of the new bar so that that the tube and ball mount would be the same length as the stock belly bar, then had the shop bore a 7/8" hole in the end for the underbelly pin to go through. Since I already had a pretty good assortment of ball mounts, I can just pin one in that gives me more or less height for what I need and I also have one that is just straight for a level pull.

Since I made that up, the stock belly bar hasn't been on the tractor, since I can just remove the ball mount and what's left rarely interferes with my implements on the 3 point.

 

[jwguthrie]

Great idea. That's what I'll do too. My draw bar attaches with a pin to a bracket under the PTO shaft like yours. I had been thinking about bolting a receiver tube to my existing draw bar but I like your way better. Thanks.